Birds of a Plastic Feather

Pink Flamingo Faces extinction - American Yard Icon to be on Most Wanted Endangered Species list

Leominster, MA

"What started out as a fun fad turned into the ultimate in tacky, and evolved into kitsch art on your front lawn."

"You really can't help but smile when you look at them, and giggle, because they're funny." :) oOo :-P oOo

The birds hit the market in the late 1950s when the color pink was in vogue, and America's exploding population of suburbanites sought to add flair to their lawns.
As I recall, in our neighborhood the yard ornament of choice was grass smothered in yellow dandelions.

oOo - Little known Random Bird Wisdom - oOo

The plastic birds arrive at your local WalMart and/or flea-ridden-market [ aren't they one in the same?! ] oOo in boxed sets of two — one standing nearly 3 feet high with its head held proudly erect, the other bending over as if munching on grass.

The Hitchcock classic movie "The Birds" came out about the same time, and no plastic flamingos were harmed in the making of this movie.

The pink flamingo enjoyed a resurgence in the 1980's with the TV police show "Miami Vice," whose opening credits featured real birds dive-bombing the beach.

"Bye-Bye Birdie" was a zany movie of the 60's starring "whats-her-name?" (not Doris Day...) oOo

Birds still pose some of the worst flying hazards to man-made Aeroplanes, since they frequently intersect each other in the "friendly skies". oOo

Bird crumbs are often used on websites to show you where your trail of pages has led-to/ come-from.

"It's For the Birds" was a popular expression meaning "not much better (or worse) than bird-poop."

oOo A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush; oOo or, a bird in the bush is worth two in the hand; oOo or, maybe a two-handed bird is worth it's weight in lost bird-smears on your car's windshield and roof. oOo

Birdies are used to play badminton, big family fun yard game of the 60's, [ also known as a Shuttlecock - another bird-term perhaps? oOo ] only rivalled by that other ever-popular yard game "the huge- red- Darts- thrown-into-hoops-or-your-head- game"!

Of course a Birdie in golf is not a hole-in-one.

Birds of a feather flock together, as in: social networking... oOo

Bird-brains are very tiny - as in: "you bird-brain!" but still take up a lot of psychic air-space, both internal cranium and external to surrounding humans - as in: social networking... oOo oOo

Also since the 60's: someone , somewhere, is giving the bird to someone else, somewhere. oOo oOo

One of the most outlandishly foisted flamingo pranks was to swipe the ornaments from front yards, take them on the road, and send photos to their owners showing the kidnapped birds in front of sights like Paris' Eiffel Tower. oOo Talk about bird-poop and rubbing your noses in it. "Wish you were here...!" oOo

Whatever the Featherstone flamingo's fate, Leominster's mayor plans to hold a party celebrating the creation's 50th birthday next June on the Town Common, which he hopes to fill with flamingos. The city has purchased the domain at http://www.flamingocity.net in hopes of capitalizing on its legacy.

oOo oOo